


Survival Training

by TheShaddowedSnow



Series: Talismanverse [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Epic Friendship, Gen, Tags Are Hard, Training, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26131285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShaddowedSnow/pseuds/TheShaddowedSnow
Summary: When making the teams and putting them together, Dick and the Trinity really should have realized putting an apocalypse survivor  and a former homeless kid in a group together would have been unfair.
Relationships: Bart Allen & Billy Batson, Bart Allen & Cassie Sandsmark, Bart Allen & Garfield Logan, Bart Allen & Jaime Reyes, Cassie Sandmark & Billy Batson, Garfield Logan & Billy Batson, Garfield Logan & Cassie Sandsmark, Jaime Reyes & Billy Batson, Jaime Reyes & Cassie Sandsmark
Series: Talismanverse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897507
Comments: 2
Kudos: 82





	Survival Training

**Author's Note:**

> this is a DIRECT SEQUEL to [How much is your choices?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26093809)
> 
> So this won't make sense if you haven't read that yet

So the Trinity, his gramps and gran, and Dick knew now. That was fun. Dick also knew he and his partners, Wally and Hartley, raised Bart after his parents' deaths. 

Currently, Bart was staying with said parental figures and was getting his room arranged, and Dick explained to his partners Bart's future/past. Bart asked Dick to do it for him because he didn't need that so soon after being interrogated nearly a week ago.

Now, however, it was the first week of vacation. It was a time of fun and family. Well, mostly.

"Survival training?" La'gaan asked. Bart blinked. "This time of year?"

"Yep, limited or no supplies, trekking it in the woods as teams," Dick confirmed. "Teams and team leaders have already been chosen."

"The scarves," Garfield realized. He glanced around, realizing he, Cassie, Jaime, and Bart all had blue scarves, with Bart's having a star on it.

"Yep, the stars mean you're the leader of your team," Dick confirmed.

"Crash," Bart said. He knew why he was a team leader. He survived in a hellscape and apocalypse. He didn't think he'd be getting any supplies either. Everyone met up with their teams, but Dick quickly pulled Bart aside.

"Bart, no one, but you and a couple of others are going to know this, but the Trinity and I will be trying to capture you guys. We won't restrain or collar you or anything, okay? But I want you to know, so you don't panic."

"Thank you," Bart murmured. "That's why Blue's on my team, right?"

"Amongst other reasons," Dick nodded. "Try to go easy on us," he joked.

-

"Alright, let's find us some shelter," Bart said as they arrived at the forest. It was a really secluded spot, and privately owned, so there wasn't a chance of anyone interrupting their training. Finally enough, the JLA was also training with them, and their group also included Billy. "From there, we can discuss further." 

"I guess no transforming for me?" Billy piped up. Bart shook his head. "Figured." Like Bart, due to personal trauma, Billy was also told about the Trinity and Nightwing going around capturing people. 

Once the group found a cave and Bart checked the nearby area, Billy and Bart explained about the capturing thing. The Trinity and Nightwing never said they couldn't, after all.

"So that's why you guys were concerned about not being found," Garfield realized. "Okay. Noted. Wait, I'm going to have to eat meat, aren't I?" He asked, eyes wide.

"Unless you want to die of malnutrition, yes," Bart said. "Sorry, Gar."

"It's fine, at least I can hunt as an animal, I'll just avoid prey creatures for now." 

"Doesn't that take a lot of energy?" Cassie asked.

"Not really," Garfield shrugged. "At least, no more than a nonspeedster using their powers. Speaking of-"

"I can go hungry for a while," Bart reassured. "And you guys were probably given some vitamin enrichments or whatever in your pack to counteract my metabolism. I'll be fine."

"You sure, ese?" Jaime frowned in concern. Bart nodded and fiddled with the Blue Flame talisman.

"I'll be fine. Won't be my first time going hungry." Those not in the know frowned at the speedster's words. Bart had gone hungry before?

"We'll need to strategize. We don't have much supplies, and Billy and I didn't get any," Bart said. "We have the advantage, though." The auburn-haired male tapped his talisman.

"A speedster, an alien suit that can track anyway Jaime met or is genetically related to anyone he met, me, magic man, and every animal," Cassie nodded. "Plus, your talisman."

"No one but me can use it," Bart said, "it's fueled by hatred, and none of you probably hate anything enough to want to completely destroy it like me. It will come in handy for long range attacks and healing, however."

"My magic will be a huge help as well," Billy said. "Even if I don't currently have access to my other form, I still have a connection to what that form has a connection to."

"Khaji Da can't be detected by modern tech either, which is nice," Jaime said. The group continued discussing their powers and abilities, as well as any relevant survival skills.

Unsurprisingly, the former homeless kid and apocalypse survivor had the most survival knowledge and skill. Even then, Billy's experience had been in a city, not a forest.

There was also the problem of supplies. Since Bart and Billy did have a ton of survival experience, and Garfield could turn into animals, they didn't have much in terms of actual supplies. They had some sleeping bags, matches, (empty) water canisters, backpacks, and not much else. They were also given two thick blankets, about queen size if any of them had to guess.

They didn't have many options, and Bart internally cursed. He summoned a speed scout and surveyed the area outside of the cave. No one. He turned to Khaji Da and Jaime, who confirmed as much.

"We can use this cave as home base, for now, might as well get familiar with the cave system as well," Bart said. "In case we have to make a quick retreat."

-

It was three days in, and Bart and Cassie were on a foraging trip as well as checking on some nearby traps when they ran into another group.

"They are capturing people! They got Hawkgirl! Please, we need help!" La'gaan exclaimed. Cassie moved forward, about to give them some of the berries they foraged, but Bart stopped her.

"... How did you two manage not to get captured?" He asked coldly, staring La'gaan and Michael down.

"We barely managed to run away what-" La'gaan got caught off because he suddenly began to seize. Bart let him up and knocked them both out, he and the Amazonian quickly returning to the cave.

Once back, Cassie glared at Bart. She was clearly not happy with how the event unfolded.

"Why would you do that?" she demanded. "They needed help!"

"They sold out their group, more likely," Bart snorted. "Or negotiated for their own freedom. We're not heroes out here, Cassie, we're survivors. I trust you guys and you guys only."

"He's right, Cassie," Billy said from where he was looking through the supplies they stole from another group the previous night. "This isn't hero training. This is survival training."

"I still don't like it," Cassie sighed but deflated. Her anger was now gone. 

"Trust me, none of this sits well with me either," Jaime said. "But they're right. Doesn't mean we have to like it."

"We're gonna have company soon, guys. ETA five minutes," Garfield said, as he got back from his watch. "We have to pack up and head to the Perch."

The Perch was a cave entrance much higher up the mountain that was accessible through the caves. You couldn't climb up the wall to get to it by normal means, but Bart could run up walls, Billy could short distance teleport, and Jaime and Garfield could fly.

None of them talked, just packed up their stuff and left.

-

"The mountain side is too perilous to climb down or run down," Cassie observed. "And too far for Billy to teleport."

"Good thing we have two people who can fly," Bart mused. "Can you turn into anything that can hold two people?"

"Yeah, I should," Garfield nodded. "But it'll be a long-dead creature."

"Good enough, the fewer trips, the better," Billy said. "Let's do this."

-

"We may not have balanced that team quite enough," Dick mused as he watched them leave from the entrance of what used to be their shelter. "They even started stealing supplies from others."

"We put two survivors on the team and told them they were being hunted," Diana pointed out. "This isn't about being heroes, in any case."

"I think they're the only team to realize it. Artemis's didn't listen to her," Bruce pointed out.

"Let's meet up with Clark, see if he managed to find anyone else," Diana added.

-

Three days later, the group circled back to the mountain, finding another cave a bit higher up but still relatively easy to get to for all of them on a different side of it.

"I'll show you guys where I placed our traps," Bart promised. "Billy, any threats?"

"Not from our pursuers. I believe they assumed we wouldn't come back," Billy said. "Their loss. I'll get those spells back up."

"Perfect." Bart surveyed the group. They'd need to find food soon, as none of them had eaten before they circled back besides Bart. The speedster even only ate because otherwise, he would have fainted.

"No sign of them within a good few miles of us either," Jaime said, Khaji Da chirping in confirmation. "We're alone for now."

"Good. Gar? Mind coming on a hunt with me?" Bart asked. The green teen nodded, shifting into a wolf as the two left.

The cave was quiet as they left, Billy putting up the spells that would shield and alert them if necessary, and Cassie and Jaime looking through their supplies. They might have to find a group to raid shortly or an abandoned camp. Their pursuers tended to leave behind any resources and the like that the ones they captured had.

"How many do you think are left?" Cassie asked after several minutes of silence.

"Who knows," Jaime admitted. "Khaji is picking up on less and less of the other groups. Think Bart could mend this bag?" He held up a gym bag they had nabbed from an abandoned camp. It had a hole in it, so it was basically useless. Billy and Bart both knew how to mend and sew, but they didn't have a sewing kit.

"With his talisman? Maybe," Billy said, joining them. "I'm not the best at mending magic, unfortunately."

"At least we manage to snag Diana's lasso," Cassie said, holding the golden rope up. "Not even Superman can break it."

"Man, my heart was pounding during that," Jaime laughed and shook his head.

It wasn't until much later, close to the agreed amount of time they had set for if they split up or a couple people went out of their shelter for it to mean trouble when Garfield and Bart came back with not only food but supplies and fresh water as well as a cooking pot.

"We'll have to boil the water," Bart said. "But that'll make our lives easier. We're also really close to a lake, which means fishing."

"We also caught a deer," Garfield said after he shifted back. He had been dragging it along as a wolf. "So, we should be properly fed tonight." Garfield had been eating any leftover uncooked meat as a wolf for the past week the training had been going on. He hated it, but the green teen also knew it was necessary to keep his strength up and survive. The group all silently agreed that they wouldn't eat meat in front of Garfield for at least a week after the training was done.

"Thank God, I'm starving," Jaime admitted. "Billy, can you start a fire for us? Khaji and I will gut the deer."

"No problem," Billy said, getting some stones and wood arranged. He muttered a quick spell and pointed at the wood, starting a campfire. Cassie quickly got plates arranged for everyone and Garfield stood watch with Bart.

-

"Tomorrow is the deadline for the training guys," Bart said nearly a week later. "I think we're the only people left."

"Khaji hasn't sensed anyone the past couple of days," Jaime informed.

"My magic hasn't picked anyone up either," Billy added. The group had had to move cave entrances a few more times, but by now, they were so familiar with the mountain and cave system that all they really had to do was wait in one of the deeper parts of the caves until their pursuers left.

"Is it bad I'm kind of disappointed it's almost over?" Cassie asked. Bart was healing a rather nasty wound. She managed to get it on her arm in their latest escape. "I… it's kind of like our own little world, out here, just the five of us. I honestly think of you all as family." The rest of the group glanced at each other.

"No, I get it," Billy admitted. "There are days I miss the rundown apartment building I lived in before I found my family, well, the rest of my family."

"I go camping all the time in the desert, and it reminds me of that, just a bit more extreme," Jaime said. "You guys should come to our next family camping trip."

"I can do without the eating meat part, but it is nice being able to be more… Instinctive? Animalistic? And have my own pack," Garfield added.

Bart sighed and nodded as he finished healing Cassie's wounds. "I miss everyone, from my future, dead and alive. I miss the closeness and togetherness people just don't seem to have in this time. sure, you couldn't trust anyone outside of your group or anything like that, but… The community you created, knowing you'd give your life for them and then you? I miss it." Bart had, by this point, told them everything. His family, his future, all of it. The auburn-haired speedster just didn't want to hide it from people he trusted his entire life with anymore.

"You have us now," Billy reassured. "We'll help you just like your grandparents and dads and the Trinity."

"Exactly," Cassie nodded. Bart smiled warmly at all of them.

"Thank you."

-

"Congratulations, you five," Bruce said after they were brought back to the Watchtower and given the green bill of health by medical. "Not only did you lose no one in your group, but you also had no significant malnourishment besides Bart. You are the longest lasting and last standing team."

"Think the other teams are mad?" Cassie asked the boys with a laugh.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Billy mused. "I mean, we did sabotage them a lot."

"And by that, you mean stole their supplies?" Jaime laughed, and Khaji Da gave an amused chirp.

"Oh, they're all waiting in the meeting room," Bruce said, guiding the winning group there. "You all excelled. This wasn't a test of heroism after all, but of survival."

"Yep, and it was hard to adjust to that mindset at first," Cassie admitted. "But once we got into it, it grew easier."

"I don't want to see meat again for at least a month," Garfield shuddered.

"You want us to talk about how we did it, don't you?" Bart asked Bruce, who nodded.

"Try and go easy on them, hm?"

-

Bart smirked as he looked at all the disgruntled and annoyed faces. Oh. Oh, this was gonna be fun. He glanced at his team and grinned.

"So, team leaders, how many of you treated your teammates as under you instead of equals?" Bart asked. Half of them raised their hands. "Teammates, how many team leaders acted like a boss instead of a leader?" This time, every non-team leader's hand was raised. "That was your first problem."

"While yes, we looked to Bart for leadership and such when needed," Garfield spoke up, "He treated us as equals. No one was lesser than another in the group. We even called Bart put if he made a stupid decision. Mutual respect and understanding were needed. While yes, Bart and I had the most experience with survival than the others, that didn't make their opinions and thoughts or ideas any less relevant."

"We were very upfront with one another," Cassie said. "We told each other the extent of our powers and what we had the second we found shelter. We strategized and planned together. We used our individual strengths to our advantage and did our best to cover each other's weaknesses. Out of everyone, I had the least amount of survival experience. Still, when I brought up making traps to get smaller prey like rabbits and mice, they listened and implemented my idea because none of them thought of doing something like that."

"We also circled back to the mountain, despite Billy and Bart thinking it was a bad idea because Cassie brought up that no one would think we would do that," Garfield added.

"Khaji and I mainly did the raiding," Jaime said. "As it was easiest for us."

"And my spells help alert us of danger, so none of us had to stay up to keep watch," Billy added.

"Not only that, but almost none of you ever kept watch, burned fires at night in the open, and didn't find a secluded and closed-off space to make shelter," Bart added. "Moving around constantly only protects you so long."

"We would have been fine if you didn't steal our supplies," Karen pointes out. Bart snorted.

"That was your second mistake. You were looking at this as heroes, not survivors being hunted."

"An excellent point, Impulse," Bruce spoke up. "This was not hero training; this was survival training. Even Garfield ate meat to be able to survive."

"Hated every second of it, but yeah, plus it helped when we had left over meat," Garfield piped up.

"Their group, to balance out the two very experienced survivors on the team, granted one in a city, but still, they were given the least amount of supplies. In fact, they got the bare minimum supplies we agreed to give you all, even their water canisters were empty," Dick said. "They still managed to not only survive and outlast the rest of you, but lost no significant weight. In fact, Jaime actually gained muscle mass the last couple of weeks." The Hispanic teen ducked his head and grinned sheepishly.

"You're all dismissed except for Bart and his team," Clark said, taking mercy on everyone.

Once everyone was gone, the Trinity and Nightwing turned to the group.

"So uh… We didn't expect anyone to last this long," Dick admitted. "Or for an entire group to not be taken so…."

"You won't have watch duty for a month," Bruce informed Billy, who beamed. It was no secret. He hated watch duty.

"And for the rest of you…. Well, let's just say we have a need for a special ops team, Billy included, of course," Dick grinned. "Led by Bart, of course. He's proved to be a capable leader."

"We won't let you down," Bart stuttered out after several seconds of stunned silence.

"Oh, and you guys don't have to do the stealth training next Saturday either," Dick hummed. "Off you go now."

The team left, except for Bart. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"They know now, and want to help," he told them. "I… Trust them. A lot. With my life honestly. This training, the team I now have… We're close now, the closest I've been with people since coming to the past."

"And you're okay with them helping?" Diana pressed gently.

Bart tapped his talisman. Was he okay with it? He hadn't depended on anyone since coming to the past, not until the survival training. Bart realized with a start that he… Missed it. The speedster missed the closeness, the complete and total trust, the care and love that surviving with other people brought out.

With a determined look, Bart nodded to Diana.

**Author's Note:**

> I am now affectionately calling this the Talismanverse from now on


End file.
